September 15, 2008

Lifetime's Coco Chanel

Having my interest stirred at the news that Audrey Tatou would soon play Coco Chanel in a feature film, I thought I'd whet my appetite this weekend and watch the heavily promoted Lifetime version of the designer's life, featuring Shirley MacLaine as Coco in her later (more grumpy) years. Frankly, all the Shirley stuff bored me. Her complete lack of an accent threw me off and they kind of lost me with the Scarlett O'Hara/Maria Von Trapp (take down the curtains!) scene. Luckily, MacLaine's scenes were only a fraction of the overall movie.

Otherwise, I give Lifetime some modicum of credit for bringing a costume-film to their network, even if it was apparent they were working with a limited budget. (So much more interesting than that "She Fought Alone" crap they normally do.) I actually didn't mind Barbora Bobulova as the younger Coco, and although some of the love scenes bordered on Velveeta and the signature "bob" seemed wrong--It made her look like Kate Jackson circa Charlie's Angels or the main chick from Saturday Night Fever-- I couldn't take my eyes off her fabulous attire, including those hats. Oh my God! Those hats!

In summation: I'd say catch it in repeats when you can (God knows they'll air the hell out of it) just to see the hats.

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